"Peter baut eine Kirche" but not "Peter erbaut eine Kirche". "Die Kirche wurde erbaut[=errichtet]" and "Die Kirche wurde gebaut." In all other cases you only use "bauen".
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Em1Jul 24 '13 at 17:09

@Em1 So Die Kirche wurde erbaut means The church was built, and Die Kirche wurde gebaut means The church was built. I may be slow-witted (I don't deny it), but I honestly don't get where the difference lies.
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indoxicaJul 24 '13 at 17:18

Hahaha... Honestly, there's no significant difference between "Die Kirche wurde erbaut" and "Die Kirche wurde gebaut". Imho, the only difference is that erbauen is more about the process while bauen is more about the result.
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Em1Jul 24 '13 at 17:55

1 Answer
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No. Erbauen means rather to erect and bauen, to build and I can't think of better examples as those given by @Em1 in the comments.

Rom wurde auch nicht an einem Tag erbaut

Often the prefix er means the prefix "re" in English; however I think that one has to learn each verb separetly (I mean, the verb alone and with prefix), because the meanings of the verbs er+verb are not always guessable. The link above exhibits the pairs

trinken and ertrinken, which mean to drink and to drown=drink repetitively to death

But Rom wurde auch nicht an einem Tag erbaut means Rome was not built in a day. But you said that erbauen does not mean to build.
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indoxicaJul 24 '13 at 17:34

Well, I guess that for that particular example "build" means the same as "edify". I would say the word erbauen is used for the building big, important things.
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c.p.Jul 24 '13 at 17:37

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Ouuuu.... Well. First I would be very careful about saying that er is often re. It might be true in some cases but erbauen is one example where it's not true. Otherwise it means that Rome had been rebuild ;) Consider Er- words independently; as new words. Different words. Anyway. About edify. I had to look up this word and from OALD, you're wrong. Looking at merriam-webster, you're archaic ;) Erbauen means to edify and to uplift and to establish but this is a different context and has nothing to do with to build. Again, the build-meaning in to edify is archaic.
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Em1Jul 24 '13 at 17:49

Instead of to edify go with to erect: to build something - The church was erected in 1582.
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Em1Jul 24 '13 at 18:00